It’s her first time in New York City
A little snow won’t deter her
She takes her camera to Central Park
Where the photo opportunities are endless
Written for Greg’s Four Line Fiction prompt. Photo credit: Mehrab Sium via Unsplash.
Jean-Paul Sartre, French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic
Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt. Hand drawn portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre by Domenico Condello
Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
I recently read an article that the publisher of the late author Roald Dahl’s children’s books is working with a group called Inclusive Minds, a consortium of “sensitivity readers,” whose objective is to make children’s books “more inclusive.”
Dahl’s books, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “Matilda,” are some of the best known and widely read children’s books. Yes, they have been characterized as dark, irreverent, and edgy. Yet they have been beloved by generations of children because of their occasionally prickly, mean-spirited nature, not in spite of it.
Dahl’s publisher, Puffin Books U.K., is now rewriting his language to remove hundreds of possibly “damaging” words. To-date, the publisher has changed parts of at least 10 of Dahl’s books. Gone are references to people being “fat,” “ugly,” “bald,” and “crazy.” Scary tractors are no longer “black.” Boys and girls are referred to as the more gender-neutral “children.”
Facing a firestorm of accusations of “censorship,” Puffin announced that, alongside the sanitized versions of 17 Dahl’s books, it will also publish unaltered “classic” versions.
And that brings me to today’s provocative question.
If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
It’s March 8, 2023. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “meditate.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.
This, That, and the Other 